Bees dying by the millions
Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 5 months ago to Business
“Once the corn started to get planted our bees died by the millions,” Schuit said. He and many others, including the European Union, are pointing the finger at a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. used in planting corn and some other crops. The European Union just recently voted to ban these insecticides for two years, beginning December 1, 2013, to be able to study how it relates to the large bee kill they are experiencing there also.
Most stinging insects terrify me, but bees and I get along fine. They go about their business and I go about mine. The only problem occurred when they wanted to live in my walls - then I called a very knowledgeable person who thought he could move the hive.
On another wing, has anyone read The Beekeeper's Apprentice, by Laurie King? It's actually about Sherlock Holmes, and extremely good.
Until the cause of mass hive collapse can be identified, it would help if more people kept bees.
DISCLAIMER: I am not keeping bees for this reason, I am keeping them to get honey and make money. There is a fringe benefit though in knowing that I am helping in alleviating a problem - which is the point of the free market: problems are solved as fringe benefits to people making money.
I read a science article awhile back that stated not allowing the bees to keep their own honey for their habitat was making them extremely vulnerable to immune issues and that is why they are dying off. Keep that in mind-- maybe you will pioneer a way to profit from while protecting the hive!
Good luck! Let me know how you and Joan make out.
That's where the queen lives.
She fills the cells with eggs.
On top of that brood box is placed a metal grate called a "queen excluder".
The queen is too large to fit through the grate, so is forced to stay in the bottom brood box.
On top of the metal grate is placed another box, similar to the brood box, it is called a "super".
But since the queen can't lay eggs in the box, the cells are only filled with honey from the workers.
This is the box that you collect your honey from.
The bees, however, also need that honey to eat.
Many bee keepers, take all of the honey in the super, and must then feed the bees sugar water.
If your bees are producing well, you should be able to collect a few super's full of honey each season.
Since they are boxes, supers can also stack.
So, it might be a good idea to at all times leave one super full of honey for the bees to eat and build up their immunity.
So the components would run (from the bottom up):
Brood box
Queen excluder
Super 1 (Reserved for bee food)
Super 2 (Profit)
Make sense?
Thanks.
I'd start there.
My understanding is that you don't need a lot of land to keep bees, in fact, people keep bees in close residential areas and their neighbors often don't notice.
From what I've read, bees tend to fly up before flying out.
Also, I would keep a birdbath filled with stones and water by the hive.
Bees need water and will congregate at your neighbors' swimming pools of that's the closest access to water.
Put stones (gravel) in the water so a bee can easily escape drowning if they fall in the water.
From what I've seen/read, beekeeping is really very simple.
Many people don't do it because they are afraid of getting stung.
My experience with bees though is, unlike wasp & hornets, bees really don't give a damn about people too much and you have to go out of your way to get stung.
My local farm/feed shop stops taking orders in mid-Feb I think.
So, I've got a bit of time.
D.D.T.